A bagel? I don't know, people. I got nothing.

Right off the bat, our meeting starts with some philosophic debate about RPG play styles. The consensus, this morning, is that most people don't play RPG in just one style, but in different styles from session to session. Sometimes you want a thought-provoking emotional storytelling experience, but sometimes you just want to play out a bloody vampire brawl through a crumbling cathedral. There's no One True Way in this hobby.

But are we crazy? We have all certainly felt let down when a game session we'd wanted to be a mature, serious drama turned into a maniacal farce of ridiculous player choices or dice-mandated disasters, and still enjoyed it, haven't we? It's not like you've got to choose one play style for life when you start a chronicle.

Chaney, though, says he'll blast himself with a shotgun in the gonads if people start playing rastafarian dwarves. And I believe him.

And now step back while the department does fifteen minutes of improv material on Medieval Times disasters and homicidal squirrels. Or something. I don't know. Who the hell listens?

You know Al Leong? We do. I know him as Uli, the candy-eating terrorist from Die Hard, but matt prefers him as the Riggs-torturing villain from Lethal Weapon. He's also a cult-favorite stunt coordinator, who you might know from such films as Big Trouble in Little China or Double Dragon(s). According to angryasianman.com, he's also been on 24, and of course Rich knows him from Deadwood. Ethan and I also remember him from The Shadow, wherein he played, apparently, "Tibetan Driver." So there that is.

John has said something so foul that it's made Chaney "happier than Jim Neighbors with a wheelbarrow full of buttholes." I can't tell you what John said, but I didn't think John had that in him. Bax is trying to keep cup of soup from running out of his nose, I think. Good show, John. You brought your A-game today.

Now, to new business. Final drafts are coming for Scion now, including the big damn adventure that shows it all off. (I'd tell you more about this conversation, involving character motivations, godhead and epic rivalries, but it'd be all spoilery.)

Brian's spending a lot of this week doing new ads for Kelley (our marketing leader) and passing off the cover of Big Eyes, Small Mouth (BESM) to Craig. With that cover done, the book will be ready for press. I think. Sounds like. In the meantime, to my left here, Craig's drawn a little Lego-style figure with a mullet and a stained wife-beater. Good show, Craig.

John and Bax are fiddling with some terminology stuff involving The Manual of Exalted Power: The Lunars (WW80101), but they're not using any curse words when they do it, so I can hardly be bothered to listen to them. Now they're making of me for typing when I should be reporting on my week.

This week I'm focusing on a lot of paperwork (contracts, etc.) and more materials for Damnation City. I'm also working on the prep-stage stuff for some licensed Vampire stuff.

matt's just sent Belial's Brood off to press and is working on a series of World of Darkness products that you'll see more about shortly. To tease you a bit, they have titles like "Parlor Games," "The Resurrectionists," and "Chicago Workings." If you like Ken Hite, keep your eyes peeled for that last one.

Joe Carriker (can I call you Joe?) is about to hit the ground running with World of Darkness: Asylum, but we're talking first drafts, here, so that book's still a ways off.

Bloodlines: The Chosen is in the thick of it right now. We'll start jurying entries once Ray's cataloged them and weeded out those that either don't qualify or don't measure up. It's a lot to read through, so have some sympathy for Ray this week.

Aileen's handling art direction for War with the Pure while Ethan and Aaron get it off to editing. Ethan and Bill and I had some exchanges this weekend about new Merits for that book, mostly involving combat, and a new Skill, so watch out for those.

Craig's presenting Legacies: The Ancient for final proofing today, and starting his rough layout for Intruders: Encounters with the Abyss.

Bill's working on yet another Secret Project, which I cannot divulge at present.

Chaney's working on Sword of Cain this week. That's it. It's a lot more work than it sounds like, between packaging and cards and all that noise, believe him.

Saturnine Night, for Promethean, is soon to be art directed.

Aaron's been guiding us through some new printing and licensing arrangements. This stuff is mostly alien to me, but I learned a lot last week while sitting in on a licensing meeting with some very nice folks from a company it sounds like we'll be working with in the next couple of weeks. (This is that thing I'm starting on this week, as mentioned above.) Stay tuned for more on that.

Are you ready for Vampizzle: The Requizzle? Brian and Chaney sure are.

By the way, I have a copy of Vampire: The Requiem for Dummies on my shelf right now. So it's real, now. You'll see it in stores soon.

And with that, we're done here.